Save as PDF in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Saving a PowerPoint presentation as a PDF has its pros and cons. The biggest advantage is that recipients won’t be able to edit, and you can embed fonts easily. An even better advantage is that you may use PDFs as a substitute for printing drafts or slides, and save so much paper.

Disadvantages include that you cannot be entirely multimedia-friendly. Whatever your thoughts may be, PowerPoint makes it very easy to create PDFs.

Follow these steps to create a PDF in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows:

1. Open your presentation that you want to save as a PDF. Make sure to save your presentation one last time. The keyboard shortcut to save your presentation is Ctrl + S.


PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

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2. Now, choose the File | Export | Create PDF/XPS Document | Create PDF/XPS button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.
3. 
   Figure 1: Save as PDF
3. Doing so brings up the Publish as PDF or XPS dialog box, as shown in Figure 2, below. Choose the location to save the PDF, provide an output filename, and choose PDF (*.pdf) in the Save As Type drop-down list, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2.
4. 
   Figure 2: Publish as PDF or XPS

What is XPS?

The XPS file type saves presentations to an XML Paper Specification format. Developed by Microsoft in June 2009, this format is also known as Open XML Paper Specification.
4. There are some more settings available, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 2, above. These settings are:

Open file after publishing

5. Opens the PDF created within the default PDF application on your computer.

Optimize for

6. There are two Optimize options available:

Standard

7. (Publishing Online and Printing) option creates PDF files suitable for high-resolution printing.

Minimum Size

8. (Publishing Online) option creates PDF files intended for viewing on-screen.

Options

9. Click the Options button, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 2, to bring up the Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 3, below.
10. 
    Figure 3: Options Dialog box
5. The Options dialog box is where you specify print settings, such as handouts with three slides per page, and customize other options as required. Click the OK button to apply these changes, and get back to Publish as PDF or XPS dialog box.
6. Now click the Publish button, as shown highlighted in orange within Figure 2, previously on this page. PowerPoint will now publish your presentation as a PDF.